Govt. restarts Siemens IT contract for borders

Argentina's government has restarted a contract for Germany's Siemens to provide IT systems for monitoring border crossings, local business paper InfoBAE reported. The government signed a US$550mn agreement with Siemens in the late 1990s but later tried to break out of the deal. Siemens sued Argentina for breach of contract, forcing the government to once again accept the agreement. The interior ministry began coordinating the project four months ago, and the federal procurement authority gave the green light to sign up Siemens on December 12. To date, Argentina has signed agreements with Chile and Uruguay, so that once the technology is in place, information collected by Argentine border officials will be electronically transferred to their counterparts in those countries. Systems at international airports and ferry terminals in Buenos Aires, along with land crossings in Entre Rios and Mendoza will go online at the start of January. During 2004 the government plans to automate the country's 40 principal border controls, which account for 85% of international traffic.